People lying on mumsnet

[Shelly421]

Slightly light hearted but ive read a few threads where some posters sound completely implausible, think showing off about money or gifts or how attractive they are/how many men want them. I often think, are they just fantasists sitting at home making up the lives they want. I guess im asking, do others think like this and often read stuff here and think 'what a load of rubbish?

That should be the strap line for Mumsnet - A complete waste of everyone’s time!

😂🤣

It’s a giant, anonymous internet forum which allows frequent name changes. Of course people lie and fantasise.

What tends to interest me more, because it’s odder, is not the people who pretend to be superwomen with high salaries and a pack of gifted, high-achieving children (which I get may be tempting if you’re grinding along on minimum wage and trying to get help for a child with SEN), but the people who invent terminally-ill children or entirely humdrum things.

I tend to believe most of it. Maybe I'm just gullible. I can understand (to an extent) lying to make yourself look good, but not why you'd bother to lie to faceless, anonymous strangers. It's the Internet - of course there's going to be people in a wider range of situations than you meet in real life.

The ones I'm suspicious of are those that seem to be targeted at some political end. People in the top 1% of earners about to be forced into utter destitution by possible small tax rises, that sort of thing.

I’m sure some people on here make some things up. It’s a bit like the boy in my form at school who SWORE that Jean Claude Van Damme was his uncle. Its usually harmless.

What isn’t harmless is when someone has an actual problem and someone pops up to say “Lawyer / Accountant / Archbishop of Canterbury here!” and proceeds to give some dubious advice. It was always drummed into us at work that free advice is not covered by insurance so my expectation is that anyone claiming to be a doctor / actuary may not be.

Yes of course

I do think you also have to consider how many people online are not mentally healthy. There are some clear obsession/ delusion posts and the internet has always been a good place for people to go to share them

Exaggeration rather than outright lies is more common I think. Which could be me being optimistic. Age will be rounded down and spending increased. Unless it is competitive frugality.

But do you think the consequences of a doctor giving advice online is that someone will sue them and they'll need an insurance payout?!

Not only is it unlikely but there is a difference between “keep an eye on your blood pressure and seek medical advice if xyz” and “stop taking your anti psychotics, they don’t sound like they’re working for you”

Jean Claude Van Damme here- the Fred Astaire of karate!

My nephew mentioned you, I will be writing a strongly worded email shortly.

The Internet is full of liars and fantasists.

Some do post photos and that is hilarious.

For me it's the ones that claim to be in really senior-responsible-big-manegerial-jobs on massive salaries whilst being barely able to use grammar and coming across like someone who couldn't even find the "submit application" button on a job site.

If people from all over the workd are on here does it not make sense that there will be people with very different lives? Even in my own friendship circle I can’t fathom a life where people aren’t running all the time for school runs, to get to work, help out elderly people and are heading off on a Thursday for a long weekend surfing in one case, or another who flies abroad regularly for work and goes to shows and concerts. The people spending tons on gifts are easily imaginable if you consider what some people earn in eg London banking

If I post, I think it’s real, or anyway as real as the sort of thing people say at the school gate/pub. No doubt I’m being taken for a ride sometimes these days, there’s a lot more trolls than there used to be. Tbh someone who trolls MN for entertainment has a much worse life than me so whatever.

Oh definitely. Seems to apply particularly to legal issues, financial foul-ups and inheritance problems. People are very free with their advice, without first checking whether the OP even lives in the same country, and I find myself often telling the OP to stop listening to what people are telling them to do on here. Go and speak to a solicitor, financial adviser, or some other qualified professional instead.

I just roll my eyes.

I remember back in the day on a now defunct parenting group a woman posting a clearly made up “funny” story about giving birth to one of her kids. It was so clearly made up but you wouldn’t believe the number of people who were LOLing and ROFLing 🙄

And another who posted a story about picking a “dead” deer up in her car, that had subsequently come back to life in the back seat. The story was featured on the Snopes website as an oft repeated urban myth/apocryphal 🤣

It just irritates me. Why pretend?

I also don’t get why people care about the age thing. I objectively do look a fair bit younger than my age…. Because I’m fat, so I have no wrinkles, and I’m ginger so have always worn high SPF every day. But I couldn’t care less if I look my age or not, and I don’t really get why people are so caught up on looking younger. I am perfectly happy to be in my 40s, why would I want to pretend I’m 30? And why would it matter how old other people think I am?

My grandma was freakishly well preserved - she could easily have passed for 15 years younger, and she died in her early 60s. Youthful looks don’t mean more time. It’s just a number.

Are you having a pop at me, op? Just because I posted a photo of my Christmas tree in the hallway? Not everyone is a fantacist on the internet, you know.

I often think people must be lying about their household income because if I earned as much as some posters claim, I wouldn’t be making threads on not making ends meet with 100k coming in every year. It’s ridiculous.

Agreed - You only have to read all the threads that the title starts with “To think..” on AIBU that are by the same poster, who changes name every time, but has a particular style and the posts are either goady or absolute inane rubbish. AIBU was absolutely spammed with them the other day.

But there are some people in real life that believe a completely different set of events to what actually happened and also there are people who think they are all that. I try to take some posts with a pinch of salt. I also think some people love stirring and trying to cause offence with some replies too.

It’s unlikely that anyone will be able to successfully sue MadeUpNameOnTheInternet but if someone does one of those jobs, they will have a duty of care. I don’t ever comment on stuff relating to my profession because it would be awful if someone did something daft as a result - even if I were to never meet that person.

Excellent! I look forward to it

I totally agree but I am always a bit boggled at the idea that people chose to think of their insurance situation rather than what the right thing to do is 😂

Typical rich meanie.

All baubles and no presents!